[From nobody Fri Sep 28 16:27:28 2007 Return-Path: <a-pal-admin@alb-net.com> Received: from rly-xa03.mx.aol.com (rly-xa03.mail.aol.com [172.20.105.72]) by air-xa04.mail.aol.com (v77_r1.21) with ESMTP; Wed, 28 Feb 2001 00:22:08 1900 Received: from alb-net.com (alb-net.com [199.173.50.4]) by rly-xa03.mx.aol.com (v77_r1.21) with ESMTP; Wed, 28 Feb 2001 00:21:50 -0500 Received: from alb-net.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by alb-net.com (8.11.2/8.11.2) with ESMTP id f1S5KUi03518; Wed, 28 Feb 2001 00:20:30 -0500 (EST) Received: from smtp-server.maine.rr.com (smtp-server.maine.rr.com [204.210.65.66]) by alb-net.com (8.11.2/8.11.2) with ESMTP id f1RLPU801030 for <a-pal@alb-net.com>; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:25:30 -0500 (EST) Received: from [66.30.17.19] (ptldme-cmt3-c3-66-30-17-19.maine.rr.com [66.30.17.19]) by smtp-server.maine.rr.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id E72EC3CC02 for <a-pal@alb-net.com>; Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:27:59 -0500 (EST) Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <v04220801b6c1c9e2ffe6@[66.30.17.19]> To: a-pal@alb-net.com From: Alice Mead <amead@mail.maine.rr.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="============_-1228813822==_ma============" Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal newsletter Sender: a-pal-admin@alb-net.com Errors-To: a-pal-admin@alb-net.com X-BeenThere: a-pal@alb-net.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.1 Precedence: bulk List-Help: <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=help> List-Post: <mailto:a-pal@alb-net.com> List-Subscribe: <http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/a-pal>, <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=subscribe> List-Id: Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals <a-pal.alb-net.com> List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/a-pal>, <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail//a-pal/> Date: Tue, 27 Feb 2001 16:17:52 -0500 X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) --============_-1228813822==_ma============ Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="us-ascii" <fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger>A-PAL ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY FEBRUARY 27, 2001 <bold>A-PAL STATEMENT </bold>This week, the Serb Parliament passed the amnesty law. It was announced yesterday the law will release only 108 of the remaining 580 prisoners. We have worked hard for the past twenty months to obtain justice for these people, nearly all convicted without proper evidence. But it won't release those charged with terrorism. Many Albanians were labeled 'terrorists" during the NATO war because they were considered pro-NATO. So this type of collective thinking, typical of the Milosevic regime, in effect still stands for over 300 remaining Albanian prisoners until further notice. The disappointment that 326 families waiting in Kosova must feel at this time must be overwhelming, and our thoughts are with them. They have been given no information as to what prospects for freedom their loved ones actually have. Last week, a group of 17 family members were turned away from the Belgrade Prison. Albanians continue to be sentenced every week. The lack of transparency throughout this whole process has been disappointing as well. The Yugoslav Ministry of Justice has promised a "speedy" review of cases that had no proper evidence. But this speedy review comes without a timetable of any kind. <bold>"Those convicted without any evidence will be pardoned," Momcilo Grubac said, adding that Mr. Kostunica was the one to make the final decision. </bold>Does that mean that those who confessed under torture will be released? Those with false paraffin tests will be released? Those whose legal and human rights were egregiously violated will be released? This process is becoming convoluted, without objectivity, more like a shell game than due process of law. ____________________________________________________________ 02/26/2001, Evening -- Minister of justice on amnesty and announcements of forthcoming Milosevic's arrest Batic: 108 Albanians will be pardoned Minister of justice Vladan Batic announced on Monday in Federal Parliament that currently there are 580 Albanians in Serbian prisons, and 108 of them will be pardoned. He said that 108 Albanians who would be pardoned had not been indicted for criminal acts from the group of terrorist crimes. He explained that out of 580 Albanians, 146 were convicted for classic crimes, so the Amnesty Act will not include them, nor 326 Albanians charged with or accused of terrorism. Batic estimated that announcements of some foreign media that former president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic was going to be arrested even till the end of this week, were mere speculations. "We have not announced any arrest. Those who are guilty will stand in court and it will be when we collect enough evidence and arguments", said Batic. (Tanjug) </bigger></fontfamily><bigger>----------------------------------- <bold><fontfamily><param>Geneva</param>February 27, 2001 Yugoslav Parliament Passes Amnesty for Jailed Kosovars By CARLOTTA GALL </fontfamily></bold><fontfamily><param>Geneva</param>BELGRADE, Serbia, Feb. 26 - The Yugoslav Parliament passed a long-awaited amnesty law today that will free several hundred Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian prisons since the war in Kosovo in 1999 and will clear thousands of draft dodgers and deserters in Yugoslavia from prosecution by the army. It was the first major piece of legislation passed by the new Parliament and the first real gesture by the new government to reverse injustices suffered by Albanians from Kosovo under Slobodan Milosevic. United Nations officials in Kosovo and human rights organizations have long called for the release of the 650 Albanians still in Serbian prisons, most of whom they regard as political prisoners. The prisoners were among about 2,000 transferred to Serbia at the end of the war in 1999, when NATO-led peacekeepers took control of Kosovo. The status of those in prison is one of the most explosive issues in Kosovo today, and United Nations officials have repeatedly said their continued imprisonment is a major obstacle to peace and reconciliation. Despite protests from Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party, and his wife's Yugoslav Left Party, the law was passed easily in both the upper and lower houses. It will give amnesty to all those charged with and convicted of conspiring against the state, but not to those convicted of terrorism. In addition to the prisoners, the main beneficiaries of the law will be an estimated 28,000 young Serbs and Montenegrins, many of whom fled abroad to avoid serving in the army during the wars in Croatia, Bosnia and finally Kosovo, according to Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac. The amnesty, he noted today, was one of the election promises of the government that replaced Mr. Milosevic's. About 200 of the imprisoned Kosovo Albanians have been charged with terrorism, and their cases will be reviewed separately, he said. But he added that after reviewing the status of the prisoners, he had asked President Vojislav Kostunica to pardon some who had been convicted of terrorism on insufficient evidence. <bold>"Those convicted without any evidence will be pardoned," he said, adding that Mr. Kostunica was the one to make the final decision. </bold>In particular, he said, 143 men from the town of Djakovica were convicted as a group, apparently without evidence, after several police officers were killed. "The real terrorists escaped, and the citizens were tried without any evidence or proof that they committed this criminal offense," he told Parliament. Shortly after taking office as president in October, Mr. Kostunica pardoned the best known Albanian political prisoner, Flora Brovina, a pediatrician, along with a Serbian journalist convicted of spying. Since then, Mr. Kostunica has come under criticism for stalling on the release of the remaining 650 Kosovo Albanians. In a recent interview, Mr, Grubac said that there was no political agenda in the delay, but that it had been necessary to review all the cases. Case officers at the independent Humanitarian Law Center, who monitored virtually every trial at the time, suggested that Mr. Kostunica had sought to use the prisoners as leverage in negotiations with the West over Kosovo and over cooperation with the United Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague. Nevertheless, passing the law, without amendments, was clearly a success for Mr. Kostunica's ministers, who applauded when it was voted through. The Socialists and Yugoslav Left deputies staged a walkout for the vote, raising banners that read, "You are freeing the butchers and are arresting Serbian generals," and "Free Rade Markovic," a reference to Mr. Milosevic's former secret police chief, who was arrested by the new Serbian authorities over the weekend. <bold><color><param>0000,0000,0080</param>Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company </color></bold></fontfamily></bigger> --============_-1228813822==_ma============-- ]